Proverbs 6:1-8

Admonitions and Warnings against Dangerous and Destructive Acts

6:1 My child, if you have made a pledge for your neighbor,

and have become a guarantor for a stranger,

6:2 if you have been ensnared by the words you have uttered,

and have been caught by the words you have spoken,

6:3 then, my child, do this in order to deliver yourself,

because you have fallen into your neighbor’s power:

go, humble yourself,

and appeal firmly to your neighbor.

6:4 Permit no sleep to your eyes

or slumber to your eyelids.

6:5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare,

and like a bird from the trap of the fowler.

6:6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;

observe its ways and be wise!

6:7 It has no commander,

overseer, or ruler,

6:8 yet it prepares its food in the summer;

it gathers at the harvest what it will eat.